“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6
“For just as (when you were unsaved) you presented you members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, . . . so now (that you are saved) present your members as slaves to righteousness.” Romans 6:19

The person who is in Christ and who has been born again (born from above) has gone through a radical conversion that has utterly changed everything about the person. The one who is in Christ is a new creation or a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). Paul either means that this person is part of an entirely new creation where the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, is King, or he means that this person is new and has completely been remade to have a new beginning and an entirely new life. Or maybe he means both, but the point is that all things are new. And with this new birth come new affections and new desires. The old lustful desires have been cut off from their life source and are in the process of dying, and the new affections and desires are growing in strength.

For the new believer there is a DESIRE FOR OBEDIENCE that was not there before. Where before there was a lust for all manner of rebellion and filthiness and sin, now there is a desire to know the will of God and a hunger to behave in a righteous manner. The believer has a strong DESIRE FOR OBEDIENCE that forces the believer to make behavioral and attitudinal changes. Oftentimes these changes are radical and significantly affect the course of life, but this is what the LORD DEMANDS OF HIS DISCIPLES. The Bible reveals to us what the Lord demands from us and tells us the requirements of true obedience and then the Holy Spirit convicts us of specific areas of sin in our life that need to be changed and gives us the power (Acts 1:8) to make those changes.

For example, I am commanded to be thankful. The Scripture is clear about this. Therefore, if there are things in my past or things in my personality; if there are behaviors or attitudes or habits; if there are prejudices or ideas that feed the enemies of thankfulness or that cause me to be unthankful, I must do what it takes by the power of the Spirit to change them. My desire for obedience and my desire to please the Lord compel me to change. (RMB 5/21/15)